Silver Lake Council Approves Raise For Employees, Hears Plea For Gym At Old School
By Lasca Randels
InkFreeNews
SILVER LAKE — Silver Lake town employees will receive a 2.5 percent raise in 2021.
The raise was determined at the Silver Lake Town Council meeting held Wednesday, Aug. 12.
Silver Lake Clerk-Treasurer Tonya Conley figured up raises at 2, 2.5 and 3 percent. There is currently a $26 per hour cap, Conley said, so if council went with the 3 percent option, the cap would need to be eliminated.
“Obviously we need to be prudent and tighten our belts for next year because we don’t know what all we’ll be up against,” said Council President Chad Miner. “I think we probably could afford to do the 2.5 percent.”
The raise will take effect Jan. 1, 2021.
Bob Garner, events coordinator for The Historic Hoosier Gym in Knightstown where the movie “Hoosiers” was filmed, attended the meeting to make a final plea for the preservation of the gymnasium at the Silver Lake school building.
“I’m not from Silver Lake. I don’t have a dog in anything that’s going on up here with the old school, but I did want to come up,” Garner said. “I felt remiss to not come up and tell you a little bit about what can happen when you have a gymnasium.”
Garner spoke about the success of the Knightstown Gymnasium, saying that even without the connection to the movie, the gymnasium would still be a viable operation.
“I cannot tell you the amount of bachelor parties, birthday parties, corporate outings and stuff that I have to turn down because we do not have room for them on the schedule. We can rent that gym about all day, every day, for $100 an hour, but more importantly than that is what happens every day after school,” Garner said.
From 3 to 5 p.m. each weekday, school buses drop children off at the Knightstown Gymnasium.
“These are kids who have both parents working. These are kids who, if it were not for this, would be out on the street or sitting with their thumbs playing video games,” Garner said. “I hate to see another old building go down. The bottom line is I’ve been in that (Silver Lake) gym. I can tell you with just the gym and the cafeteria across the hall you can have a viable entity there in events.”
Continuing discussion about the old school building, Conley told council members that three environmental study proposals were obtained for the old school building.
Council approved accepting the proposal from Patriot Engineering and Environmental Inc., Indianapolis.
In another matter, Mitch Hansel, of Fleis & Vandenbrink Engineering, presented an update at last night’s meeting. A proposal for street and sidewalk improvement involving a Community Crossing grant was previously approved.
The grant program has been pushed back due to the pandemic. It is unclear when the next round of grant applications will be open. According to Hansel, it may happen in September, but there’s a possibility it will not be until January.
Hansel asked the council for direction as to which roads they would like to see upgraded first. Council discussed starting with Eldora Drive, Courtland Drive and Lotz Lane.
Hansel will return to the September meeting to give an update on the status of the grant process.
In other news:
- The tornado siren at the fire station did not go off Monday, Aug. 10. D&D Electric has been contacted and will be looking into the issue. The other two sirens in town were determined to be working properly.
- The next regular meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Sept. 9, at the town hall.